Andrea Hylen

Flip the Script on Loneliness

Week Four of Flip the Script Topics

We are never alone. Not in energetic terms. We’ve been trained to only look to other humans for connection.

Lee Harris

My intention this week is to explore something that all humans experience.

Loneliness.

Feeling empty, isolated, unwanted, unseen, lost. Life changes, or circumstances, can create an experience of loneliness. A job change, financial instability, changes in relationships, living arrangements, death of a loved one, a holiday.

Endings with a beginning that is filled with uncertainty and the unknown.

I enter this subject gently, with kindness. Loneliness is complex. For some, it is a lifelong struggle to find connection. It can be a hard thing to admit, talk about or think about. It can be a topic we don’t want to feel or be reminded of a time when we felt lonely.

Types of loneliness

• Emotional loneliness – ‘the absence of meaningful relationships’
• Social loneliness – a ‘perceived deficit in the quality of social connections’
• Existential loneliness – a ‘feeling of fundamental separateness from others and the wider world’

Multiple Sources on the Web

Alone.

You can be alone and not feel lonely.

Emptiness.

Artists and writers experience emptiness, as a way of connecting with their art.

Isolation.

Isolation may be self-imposed like in a writing retreat or a desire to create space to reflect or rest.

Feeling lost.

Feeling lost can be a sign that it is time for something to change or that something is about to change.

Some of the ideas we will explore this week are:

Solitude

Connection

Belonging

Feeling Lost

Know Thyself

Practices for loneliness

Day 22 Prompts:

• Reflect on the word loneliness.
• Write about a time when you were lonely.
• How long did it last? Were you alone, or with people, when you felt lonely?
• What expressions or other words bring up an exploration with loneliness?

To read all 100 days of Flip the Script, go to Medium: https://andreahylen.medium.com/